``AVON -- City Council last night [12-13-10] took the first
step toward authorizing a development agreement with Mercy
Regional Medical Center for road improvements on SR 611,
across from BJ's Wholesale Club. The hospital plans a
large new facility at that location.

"They're paying for the whole thing," Planning Coordinator
Jim Piazza said. "They're putting in a right turn lane
off of Interstate 90 and making it a full intersection
including BJ's and Mulligan's. They're also adding a lane
on the south side."

Mercy will be responsible for improving the sanitary and
storm sewer system at that intersection. The total project
will cost nearly $170,000 ...

Once Avon council gives final approval, Mercy will go
out to bid but won't start the project until the spring
thaw. Mercy must complete the project within a year,
unless council grants an extension ...

Council members last night [12-13-10] also went into behind
closed doors to discuss a new three-year contract with the city
firefighters union.''

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Streetscape projects and walking and
bicycle trails in the area will get a $9 million boost
from the federal government over the next three years.

Regional planners picked 17 projects across Northeast Ohio
on Friday to split the money over that time, ranging from
street beautification in Cleveland's Warehouse District
and Tremont neighborhood, to trails connecting parks or
linking existing paths in Geauga and Lake counties.

About $5 million will go to projects in Cuyahoga County.

The "Transportation Enhancement" projects are designed
to improve the aesthetic or environmental aspects of
transportation systems and are mandated by the federal
government, said Michelle Johnson, a team leader for the
Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency.

"It's an improvement of quality of life, as it relates to
transportation," she said.

Local governments or donors must pay at least 20 percent
of each project. NOACA capped its contribution to any
individual project at $600,000, paid as work is completed.

Work must be started by 2014. Full costs of individual
projects were not available Friday.

The projects, by city or sponsoring agency, are:

Avon: Widen a bridge over [I-90] at Ohio SR 611 by 10 feet so
residents can walk or bicycle to the YMCA or All Pro Freight
Stadium, where the Lake Erie Crushers play. Federal contribution:
$600,000 ...''

AVON -- The State Route 611 bridge over Interstate 90
will get a makeover following the Northeast Ohio Areawide
Coordinating Agency's approval last week of a $600,000
transportation enhancement grant for the city.

That money, along with an additional $260,000 from
the city, will be given to the Ohio Department of
Transportation, which will make renovations to include
five-foot sidewalks and five-foot bike trails on both sides
of the bridge, along with sidewalks on both sides of state
Route 611 throughout the entire ODOT limited access way.

In addition to that project, ODOT will repave and re-stripe
SR 611 from the bridge to Detroit Road, eliminating the
striping bottleneck just before the intersection near
B.J.'s Wholesale Club. The city will pay one-third of the
cost for this, which is approximately $158,000.

ODOT's involvement in the project is a bonus for Avon,
according to City Engineer Rob Knopf.

"The original plan was for one 10-foot-wide multi-purpose
path on the western side of the bridge with a sidewalk
along the ODOT limited access way on that side only,"
he wrote in an e-mail, referring to what the city would
have done if ODOT did not get involved. "We're essentially
getting double the project for the same amount of money."

Knopf said the project will begin sometime in the first
quarter of 2011 and be completed by mid-year of 2013. When
construction is complete, it will create a pedestrian
connection from the intersection where B.J.s is to
Recreation Lane.

``AVON -- Mercy has officially submitted plans to the Avon
Planning Commission for a medical facility to be built on
33 acres of land along I-90 and SR 611.

Mercy, formerly Community Health Partners [CHP], will
present the plans before Avon Planning Commission during
a Nov. 17 [2010] meeting.

"It will increase the value of that interchange," Avon
Mayor Jim Smith said at Monday night's council meeting.

The overall site plans for the project include an
82,000-square-foot building on the property, along with
an entrance to the property located just opposite of the
entrance to BJ's Wholesale Club.

In March, Mercy President and CEO Edwin M. Oley announced
the health care system had purchased the property in
Avon, with plans to build a 100,000-square-foot facility
to feature physician offices, an ambulatory surgery and
comprehensive imaging center.

Though Mercy has submitted plans to the city, when
contacted by The Press, Mercy Director of Marketing and
Communications Kasha Frese said no further information
was available.

In September [2010], Frese said Mercy hopes to break ground
on the project "some time in the first quarter of 2011."

Anthony Lampasona, the contact listed for the project,
could not be reached for comment before deadline. Lampasona
is the vice president of tenant development at Landmark
Healthcare Facilities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to the website for the company, Landmark
Healthcare facilities¬ "is a leading full-service developer
of physician office buildings and clinics, ambulatory care
and surgery centers, cardiac and cancer centers, imaging
centers, fitness and women's centers and laboratories."''

``AVON -- Avon Planning Commission members approved
site development plans Wednesday [11-17-10] for an
82,000-square-foot medical office building to be built on
Colorado Avenue, contingent on engineering issues being
resolved within a 10-day period.

Mercy, a nonprofit medical health care system formerly
known as Community Health Partners, is bringing the
medical facility to the city, along with developer Landmark
Healthcare Facilities, based in Milwaukee, Wisc.

According to the website for the company, Landmark
Healthcare facilities "is a leading full-service developer
of physician office buildings and clinics, ambulatory care
and surgery centers, cardiac and cancer centers, imaging
centers, fitness and women's centers and laboratories."

"Landmark is the developer and we are the owner of the
land," Mercy Director of Marketing and Communications
Kasha Frese said in an interview today.

During the meeting, Paul Sieben, an architect representing
Mercy, said the health care system is excited about the
project, which he noted would bring approximately 75
jobs to the city once it is opened. Roughly 50 to 100
individuals would be employed during the construction of
the project, Sieben estimated.

"Mercy system is paying about $125,000 a year in taxes
as well," he said ... In an interview, Frese clarified,
"We (Mercy) are a nonprofit, so some aspects will be tax
exempt." However, she added that Landmark is a for-profit
company.

Sieben said the three-story building would include an
ambulatory surgery center, a diagnostic surgery center
and physician offices. "We tried to create green spaces,"
he added of the layout.

The proposed facility sits on approximately 12 acres
of land, with another 10 remaining, according to a
representative ...

The hope is to begin construction on the project in the
spring, Sieben said. "We expect to be complete within 12
months (of [starting] construction)," he added ...''